Tripadvisor has confirmed its plan to restructure to focus on experiences with a reduction in the company's global workforce.
The company said it expects $85 million in annualized cost savings as a result of the “realignment,” with the majority expected to be realized in 2026.
Tripadvisor also said that it expects to incur charges of about up to $40 million related to the restructuring, which will be made up of severance payments, employee benefits and other related costs. The strategy will see the loss of about 20% of the company's workforce, or about 450 people.
The company is pivoting from its roots as a reviews and guidance site toward the fast-growing in-destination experiences sector, in what CEO Matt Goldberg calls a “fundamental shift.”
Additional changes through the restructuring include news roles for Pepijn Rijvers who becomes chief business officer and Kristin Dorsett who becomes general manager of experiences. Dorsett will report to Rijvers.
On a call with analysts this morning, Goldberg said that the company plans to merge the experiences team at Brand Tripadvisor, the company’s core metasearch and travel guidance platform, with Viator, its tours and activities marketplace.
The news comes on the heels of activist pressure from Starboard Value, which took a 9% stake in the company in July, calling it “undervalued” at the time. Last month Starboard CEO Jeff Smith spoke of opportunity to “transform and reimagine the user experience…” as reported by Reuters.
Tripadvisor’s relationship with Viator has been marked by ups and downs. Acquired in 2014 for about $200 million, the tours and activities platform struggled for years to find its footing inside Tripadvisor’s broader ecosystem. By 2022, Tripadvisor was reportedly considering spinning off the brand, but in recent years, Viator has turned into the company’s standout performer. One year ago, Viator’s revenue surpassed that of brand Tripadvisor for the first time, and in March, the company brought in Rijvers, a former Booking.com executive, to lead the experiences brand.
Goldberg said the impending changes are being made to narrow the focus of brand Tripadvisor and to lean in to growth opportunities, namely experiences and artificial intelligence, while simultaneously managing its legacy offerings for profitability.
“These actions are designed to sharpen our execution, accelerate revenue growth, improve operating margins and build a more resilient financial profile,” he said.
“This shifts us from optimizing for individual brands, to optimizing as a single, focused company—one that’s deeply focused on being experience-led.”
The combined reach of brand Tripadvisor and Viator paired with third-party distribution should create value for operators, according to Goldberg. He said the situation presents a unique advantage for Tripadvisor’s experiences business that hasn’t yet been fully realized.
“By unifying our teams behind experienced leadership, we’ll build on our strong marketplace flywheel,” Goldberg said. “Our product and supply optimizations accelerate our conversion wins to fuel more efficient and effective marketing, which in turn compounds the conversion gains, driving higher repeat rates and improved unit economics.”
The news came as the company reported third quarter revenue of $553 million, up 4% year over year. Net income for the period was $53 million while adjusted EBIDTA was $123 million, representing 22% of revenue.
Brand Tripadvisor reported an 8% loss in revenue in Q3 to $235 million while Viator increased revenue in the quarter by 9% to $295 million.
Brand Tripadvisor reported adjusted EBITDA as a 32% loss of $59 million in the quarter while Viator reported adjusted EBITDA of $50 million, up 63% up year on year.
“Our performance in the third quarter reflects the progress we’ve made in our marketplace businesses, particularly our continued success building on our scale position in the experiences category. Our portfolio mix is now anchored in high-growth marketplaces, which now represent nearly 60% of our revenue and 30% of our profit over the last twelve months,” Goldberg said in a release.
“The shift in our operating model we are announcing today positions Tripadvisor Group as an experiences-led and AI-enabled company. These changes are intended to support a more focused set of strategic priorities, namely extending our leadership position to drive long-term growth in experiences, leveraging our differentiated assets to transform the travel experience for an AI future and managing our legacy business to enhance profitability.”
CFO Mike Noonan said the company was pleased with its performance in Q3 as it continues to “capitalize on opportunities in experiences and manage headwinds in our legacy offerings.”
“Over the last year, we have placed experiences at the center of the group’s strategic and financial priorities. As we exit the year and finalize our targets for 2026, our highest priority is to make the necessary shifts in our operating model to support long-term growth in revenue and adjusted EBITDA grounded in our opportunity in experiences,” he added.
Noonan also said that Q4 guidance would be in line with the company's existing structure adding that Tripadvisor plans to update its reportable segments next quarter in line with the new operating model.
"We expect to maintain three segments, which we anticipate will be experiences, hotels and other and TheFork. We believe updating our reportable segments will provide investors with a clearer understanding of the growth and margin performance and future opportunity of our entire experiences business, as well as more clearly highlight how we will manage our legacy businesses."
He went on to explain that the hotels and other segment will effectively be the current Brand Tripadvisor segment, but "without experiences related revenue and expenses."
The company has also announced the appointment of Alex Dichter to the board. Dichter currently serves as senior advisor to KSL Capital Partners, a private equity fund focused on investments in hospitality and travel, and SkyLink, a corporate travel AI startup.
Earlier this week Greg O'Hara notified the compay of his decision to step down from the board of directors.
This story was updated following the company's Q3 earnings call.